Lock of Eternity
by Cluny the Warlord 1992
Summary: Doctor number 10 and Rose make contact with a vessel of the lord of all Time Lords, this stranger reveals to our heroes the many secrets of reality, and many old faces all meet for the first time in ages. Several new faces are introduced as well.
1. Prologue

**Lock of Eternity**

_The Time Lords, beings said to monitor the time stream, traveling across the very fabric of time and space itself in sophisticated machines that boggle the mind. For centuries their power remained unrivaled, stopping the forces of evil from laying waste to the universe. Their race was so great and their power was so powerful that one Time Lord was faced with the choice of destroying the rest in order to protect the very universe itself. Since then, this man has traveled throughout time, stopping the forces of evil from destroying the Earth and wiping out the human race, meeting new people, keeping the balance of the universe from falling out of whack. This odd, eccentric, and multi-faced stranger has only gone by a common name, "The Doctor." But the Doctor's race, though ancient and powerful, was only second best in the lineage of creation, they were only regulators of the time stream commanded by sentient beings known as the Zen. The Zen, ancient beings of immense power who created the fabric or reality itself, monitored the fabric of the universe and guarded a pan-dimensional seal that contained the "Old Ones," called the Lock of Eternity. The Zen never aged and could not die, as this would result in a cataclysmic flood of darkness that would destroy all of creation and unleash the sleeping Old Ones forever. These sentinels of reality would often send their consciousness into the mind of a human that bared their likeness, in order to let off steam and maintain their connection with the universe. Now one Zen has found a way of bringing his vessel in contact with the Doctor, and will soon reveal to him the powers of the dimension known across time itself as the Lock of Eternity._


	2. The Boy Named Zero

**The Boy Named Zero**

The Doctor and Rose were at their wits end, they had gone through a difficult endeavor in a parallel universe, against the Cybermen, and Rose was feeling very glum. Mickey, her off and on boyfriend, had decided to stay behind and protect his grandmother and destroy the rest of the Cybermen manufacturing factories. The Doctor knew how Rose was feeling all too well, he'd had to say goodbye to several companions of his, sometimes for the better and some for the worst, "Rose, I'm sorry for what happened to Mickey," Rose looked at him, "but you have to understand, he made his decision to help those people."

"I know, Doctor." Rose said swallowing a sob, "It's just gonna be hard for me to cope with it, I mean my heart feels like it's at war with my emotions, you know?"

"Believe me, Rose," The Doctor said, "I know how hard it is to say final goodbyes to someone who you've become so attached to. It hurts, I know, and it's absolutely insufferable at first, it's always hard to accept it but you have to convince yourself that all things will be all right."

Rose looked up to the TARDIS, mourning at the fateful departure of Mickey, the boy she'd been great friends with, who made what some would call the ultimate sacrifice, who made a pledge to rid an alternate dimension of the cruel fate of being ruled by that of a cold metal race of robotic tyrants. She then came to swallow her pain in the fact that he'd made a selfless act, ultimately for the greatest good mankind could possibly know, sacrifice in the name of freedom. "I'll try, I can't say that I will like it, but I'll… I'll try."

"Not a bad thing to say, about one who left this world in the name of protection from the foul fiends that dare to snuff out the flame of hope." An unknown voice said, "His sacrifice was not in vein, I've seen it. I saw the reason why, and I've seen his progress since you left him, but don't worry, your paths will cross again, believe me."

The Doctor looked around, "And how have you seen these things?" he stood up and stepped forward, "And where are you? Not polite to say somethin' of someone else without an introduction, now is it?"

He jumped forward in shock as the source of the voice tapped on his shoulder, "Very well, here I am." The voice came from a boy around fifteen years of age with an American accent. He was blonde with a white coat, a grey shirt, and black pants and wore charcoal grey sneakers. His eyes were surprisingly startling, one was ice blue and the other was a deep red. His hair was also oddly colored, black in and white mixed throughout. His voice sounded very calm and peaceful, "You look different from the last time I saw you, I'm sorry if I've never introduced myself until now, but might I say you look great for a nine-hundred and six year old time traveler."

"How does an odd young man know that much about me?" The Doctor asked, "And you still haven't told me who…" The boy cut him off with a handshake.

"Oh yes, where are my manners today? I swear I'd forget my head if it weren't always on my shoulders," the boy laughed as he shook the Doctor's hand, "I'm Zero, vessel of one of the Zen, I'm in charge of keeping an eye in the fabric of history, a sort of 'fly on the wall' for lack of a better term."

"It's nice to meet you," Rose said, "my name is…"

"I know who you are," Zero turned toward her, "Rose Tyler, companion of… drum roll please…" he started slapping his knee for the light drum roll effect, "…The Doctor," He said waving his arms in the Doctor's direction.

"You're rather eccentric to be the vessel of a Zen's consciousness, don't you think?" The Doctor asked.

"Eh, I used to be serious and philosophical," Zero said as he sat upside-down on the bench, "but then I got bored, I mean you've been to different planets in at different points in time under different faces having the time of your life everywhere you went with people you grew to care about." He sighed, "Me, I've been alone in the time stream since the dawn of creation. I've been in this body since it was only a single celled organism."

"You've been in that body for that long?" Rose asked, "What keeps you looking young, my mum might want to know that."

"The energy from the Zen is what keeps my body alive," Zero replied, "and to be honest I've had to replace my eyes several times, lucky me for optical transplants are actually very reliable these days. Do you know how difficult it is walking around having to use your ears to detect movement? It's even more difficult trying to convert glass eyes into fully functioning eyes."

"Sounds like you've had a rough eon, eh?" The Doctor asked.

"Yeah, unlike you having to watch people die in front of you," Zero replied, "I've been forced not to make friends with anyone until their consciousness has been replicated and reincarnated in the Lock."

"The Lock," The Doctor and Rose asked in unison, "of what?"

"The Lock of Eternity," Zero replied, "the center pinnacle of this universe. It's a place where copies of people's minds, bodies, spirits, and all that stuff go when their originals are killed."

"Everyone," Rose asked sounding very unsure, "including criminals, and that lot?"

"Yeah," Zero said as he scooted around onto his feet, "but in they are kept in check by my master, he keeps criminal minds like the dictators and soulless maniacs permanently frozen like mannequins."

"Really," The Doctor asked, "huh, I never thought anyone would do that these days."

"It works better than letting them run hither and thither trying to change history." Zero stated.

"Now why is that?"

The conversation was now only between Zero and the Doctor, Rose simply sat down and listened on about the Lock, the way it was run, and why Zero had come to them. Zero was, during most of the conversation, fidgety and moving around like a hyperactive child.

"What's the lock for?" The Doctor asked.

"To lock away a terrible force of evil," Zero replied.

"What evil force, the Devil or something of that sort?"

"No, it's a force far stronger, older, and darker than that."

"Is there any way of knowing what this force is?"

"Read anything by a writer, pen named H.P. Lovecraft."

"Oh, that sort of evil, the Old Gods, the ones that have squid faces, or something?"

"Yes, that's it exactly. I would tell you the specific names, but that would draw them closer to us."

"Right, right, Lovecraft made a statement that if you speak their names, they come closer, and sometimes when they're close enough they drive you into madness."

"Imagine what would happen if a Zen vessel like me became possessed by those squid faced freaks, I'd have to go through regeneration like you, or worse."

"And that wouldn't be very nice, would it?"

"If I'm altered, so too will be the flow of reality and the time stream itself, causing more of a hassle for a nomadic being like yourself and the lovely Miss Tyler; and believe me, that would not be pretty."

"You sound like you've gone through that before, what happened last time?"

"Does the K-T event ring any bells, Doc?"

"Oh my, that's not very pleasant now is it?"

"A massive, cosmos-bourn, whit hot, fireball, incinerating all things in a fifteen hundred mile radius which now makes up the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, I'd say you certainly are right."

"So about your master, the Zen, what is he like?"

"He looks my age, fifteen years old, doesn't move from his pedestal at the exact center of the room where the seal is, he sits facing toward the exit of the lock, with two giant mirrors facing the seal."

"Why's that," Rose asked, "shouldn't he be facing the seal instead?"

"Facing in the direction of the seal, risks staring directly into the eyes of the Old Gods, and if someone does that they sink into the boiling pit of insanity and the seals all over the Omniverse and the time stream itself, wiping out the whole of creation as we know it. A reflection of their stinging eyes is the most effective way of avoiding those monsters." Zero replied.

"Would mirrored sunglasses help?" The Doctor asked.

"One would think so, but no." Zero replied.

The Doctor's curiosity was piqued, "Would it be too much to ask if you could escort Rose and I to the Lock of Eternity?" He asked.

"Why do you think I've revealed myself to you?" Zero smiled, "I've spent the past few days looking for the both of you so I could take you there myself."

"Oh," The Doctor said wide-eyed in surprise, "fancy that; makes me feel more important than I am. Right then, allons-y."

"Wait, do we need to travel back to the dawn of creation to see this thing, or what?" Rose asked.

"Nope," Zero said walking up to the TARDIS, "we only need this baby, right here." He stroked the side of the box, turned to the direction of the Time Lord, "One thing though," he said, "I'm operating the TARDIS the whole way there."

"What?" The Doctor said, "What? What makes you think that I'd simply let you pilot my TARDIS? No, that is not happening at all, I'm not letting this happen, I'm not letting you do this, no bloody way, not on your life." He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and pointed it at Zero, "Now step away from my TARDIS."


	3. The World Outside of Time

**The World Outside of Time**

Zero looked at the Doctor and sighed, as if out of boredom and asked, "Is this really how you feel?"

"Yes," the Doctor stated with a stern look on his face, "now as I said, step away from my TARDIS."

"You leave me no choice then." He raised his hand and snapped his fingers. At that moment the sonic screwdriver sputtered like a car on its last legs and belched out a large fountain of smoke in his face, blowing his hair back. The look on Zero's face changed to a mask of humor, he snorted and snickered and then leaned over in a bout of laughter, "Ahahaha, oh man, hahaha, you… haha, you should see… gyahaha, the… the look on your fa-ha-ha-hace. It's p-p-pricele-heh-heh-hess."

The Doctor looked at his screwdriver, "What?" he said in sheer disbelief, "That's never happened before. Must have blown a fuse, haven't done any proper maintenance on my screwdriver lately. Wait a minute, did you do this to my screwdriver?" he asked.

It took a few minutes for Zero to regain his composure. He looked at the smoke-faced Doctor and couldn't help but giggle at how funny he looked, "Yeah, heh, I had to." He couldn't help but start giggling almost uncontrollably, "You didn't leave any choice, I said so. Remember?"

"Well none of that would have happened if you'd just stepped away from my TARDIS, you know?" The Doctor said. He looked over at Rose, whose jaw had dropped in shock at the sonic screwdriver malfunctioning like it did. "Gone a bit slacked in the jaws have we?" He asked.

"What?" Rose said as she snapped out of her stupor, "Oh, right, what happened?"

"Oh, right," Zero laughed, "I just temporarily shorted out one wire in the power battery. I decided to add in the smoke and backfire for effect." He chortled again, "I didn't intend for it to do that to your face."

"Let me guess," the Doctor said wiping the soot from his face, "that was a defensive technique to be used in the state of emergency, right?"

"Part of it was, part of it wasn't," Zero replied, "I did short it out temporarily, but I added in the smoke by manipulating the molecules in the air. Truth is the whole thing was a complete accident, on my part I shouldn't have tried to take the TARDIS without saying why in the first place."

Rose looked at Zero quizzically, "Why did you want to pilot the TARDIS in the first place?"

"Well, it's because these coordinates are confidential need to know basis and unfortunately I cannot give them away to the Doctor, it's a rule and it's above my area of jurisdiction." Zero replied, "Only the Zen can give that, and from what he said, it doesn't even matter if you're the savior of the universe or not."

"But the TARDIS is something only I know how to fly." The Doctor said.

"Says the doddering imbecile that threw the instruction manual into a super nova," Zero replied.

"Why would you do something like that, Doctor?" Rose asked.

"The instructions disagreed with me." The Doctor replied.

"And now landing at the right period in time is like a game of drunken roulette." Zero giggled, "That's why the Zen created their vessels with an unlimited capacity for information, no reason to argue with doing things the right way."

"But that's just not as fun, doing something the right way with no foul ups is just, well, wonky." The Doctor replied.

"Well maybe if you did things the right way we wouldn't end up jumping into the wrong periods and places all the time." Rose replied.

"But that's the fun of time travel," the Doctor protested, "not knowing what precise moment in time you'll land in, not knowing who you'll see, and not knowing where you'll land, It's all that not knowing that makes flying the TARDIS all the more fun."

"I see your point." Zero replied, "Anyways, I'd like your permission, Doctor, to pilot the TARDIS to the lock of Eternity, I hear that a certain lady is waiting for a certain man who used to live in fireplace and promised her he'd take her to a part of the night sky that she wanted, I believe her name was Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, or Madame de Pompadour as you know her."

The Doctor's eyes grew wide in amazement, "She remembers me?" He asked.

"Oh the fondness she's has for you, Doctor," Zero grinned, "in fact the first thing she asked when she got to the Lock was, 'Where's the Doctor?' The answer she got was from nine men, and can you guess who they were?"

The Doctor was shocked, "They were all me," he laughed, "that's interesting, all nine of my past lives living in the same Dimension, that's brilliant. Imagine running into my selves, wait is Susan there too?"

Zero smiled and nodded, "She is and she has been made up to date on all of your regenerations, but naturally she tends to stick with your first self, her grandfather."

"Naturally," The Doctor replied, "she always did like him the most, I mean he took the TARDIS and fled Gallifrey together. What about my old foe, the Master, is that bugger around?"

"Isolated his incarnations in a looped time pocket, and reduced the power of his laser screwdriver to that of a burnt out match. He's not going to bother you in there." Zero said with a toothy grin on his face.

"Trapping him in a small scale time loop and disabling his laser screwdriver, ohhh, you are brilliant." The Doctor smiled, "Can't wait any longer, I have to see this for myself!" He pushed open the TARDIS' door and ran inside yelling excitedly, "What are we standing around here for, Zero set those coordinates for the Lock of Eternity, ALLONS-Y!"

Zero and Rose ran into the TARDIS after the overjoyed Time Lord and shut the door. Zero immediately went to work using the telekinetic powers granted to him by the Zen flipping switches, typing in coordinates, firing the engines, adjusting knobs, setting the time flow adjustments, and throwing the dimensional stabilizers off and smoothing out the temporal synchronization systems. At the moment when Zero was finalizing the coordinates, the Doctor walked up to him and asked, "Well everything ready?"

"Oui, mon capitaine." Zero said as he took a rather odd looking pose, he saluted with the palm of his hand facing upward toward the ceiling, stood on the toe of his right foot, his tongue hung out of the right corner of his mouth and his head was cocked to the right slightly. "The TARDIS is ready, just throw the switch and we'll be off."

"Aren't you going to throw the switch?" Rose asked.

"Well I would, but that's the job that my master left up to the Doctor," Zero replied with a serious look on his face, "well, Doctor, what will you do?"

"This," The Time Lord said as he started the engine and sent them speeding to the very support pinnacle of the universe, the very prison of the Old Gods, spoken of in the works of H.P. Lovecraft, "off we go!"

The viewing panel within the age old time machine that the Doctor had piloted since his first departure from Gallifrey, most of what they could see was a long monochromatic hallway that seemed to go on forever. The Doctor and Rose were taking in the odd sight outside the TARDIS when they heard a booming voice that echoed on like thunder, "Welcome, Doctor and Rose Tyler to the Lock of Eternity, where memories can be relived, where old faces can be reunited once again, where time waits for everyone, and where timelines are irrelevant."

"Sounds like the Zen were expecting us." The Doctor said.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious." Zero said in a flat tone.

"Was that how he greets everyone, or are we on the VIP list?" Rose asked.

"The head honcho greats everyone like that, actually." Zero replied. "Nothing that special, just very anti-climactic for me, I used to hear this on a daily basis before I asked him not to welcome me back." The Doctor and Rose looked at each other and shrugged walking out the door. Zero turned his eyes toward the view screen, and noticed a metallic figure passing in front of the camera. "Hey," He called out to the Doctor and Rose, "We've got company, big metal and swift."

"Ha, must be the welcoming committee," The Doctor stated. He opened the door and saw a pair of glowing red eyes attached to a metallic, lizard-like body. "No, no," The Doctor started chuckling in astonishment, "incredible, this is beyond brilliant. I haven't seen one of these in a millennium, at the least."

The metallic being looked on and said in a deep mechanical voice, _Greetings, Doctor. Welcome to the Lock of Eternity, the final resting place of the Metalichron race. We were told of your coming, I am honored to greet you and your companion._

"Doctor, what's going on I thought the Zen was going to greet us." Rose said.

_Negative, the Zen cannot leave the pedestal of balance._ The metal creature said, _Now please, follow me to the foyer. There are many people who have eagerly awaited the arrival of the Doctor and his companion, Rose Tyler._

"Lead on you big brilliant metal marvel of ingenuity, you." The Doctor said.

As they progressed down the corridor Rose asked the Doctor, "Why does it feel like you've seen this thing before, Doctor?"

"Because I have seen it before, Rose," The Doctor replied, "The Metalichrons were a race of metal beings built by the Time Lords before the first great Time War, they were the benevolent answer to the Daleks and Cybermen. Rassilon, a Time Lord legendary for supposedly finding the secret to achieving immortality created them with only one purpose to serve and protect their masters, never to commit an act of malevolence."

"How can they know what is malevolent and what isn't," Rose asked, "I mean the Daleks can't do that and the Cybermen only believe in upgrading people to make more of themselves, so how are the Metalichrons any different?"

_Answer,_ The red and black mechanical creature sure, _Rassilon bestowed all Metalichrons with memory chips, the purpose of these chips is to analyze intensity of vocal projections and link them with known human emotions, such as rage, hate, confusion, glee, excitement, and others. In other terms, with the…_

_*_From here on out, I'll start having multiple Doctors speaking to one another for a majority of the story, so I'll be referring to them by number.*

A familiar voice to Rose chimed in to finish the Metallichron's sentence, "…The chip allows the Metallichrons to sense the emotions of whoever gives the orders and evaluate the purpose of the command." Rose turned to see, at her amazement, a tall man with very short dark hair, black trousers, dark boots, and a black leather jacket. Rose stood still; her face was a mask of shock and happiness, she raised her hands to cover her mouth and rubbed her eyes, "Yes, Rose, it's me; I hope you haven't forgotten me since our last encounter with the Daleks."

Rose ran and embraced the man tightly, "How could I forget you, my Doctor?"

"Did I really used to be that tall?" The Doctor asked himself.

"So you're the latest version, eh?" Asked the taller Doctor, "Not that bad, I'm shorter than I'm used to seeing me. I'm also not used to seeing me in a suit."

"I can see you fancy that leather jacket still," Doctor number Ten said, "I never got used to wearing that dark wardrobe, had to change into the skinny suit, and of course," he patted the sides of his trench coat, "the trench coat. Oh, before I forget," He pulled out his glasses, "remember these beauties?"

"Are those brainy specs?" Number Nine asked, "Those take me back. I must admit it is nice meeting my newer self, all the older ones have gotten a little, well, boring." He looked around, "Then there's what you look like after, well, you."

"My future self is here?" The Tenth Doctor asked.

"Yeah, and he's a little, well eccentric." Nine replied.

"One question," The Doctor proceeded on with caution, "is he… ginger?"

"Sadly, no, still brown," Nine sighed.

"What?" Ten stated, "Oh come on, I've saved the Universe more times than I care to recall, given so many people rather thrilling moments to add a lot of spice to their otherwise human lives, and even chuffed off the Lord President of Gallifrey in the Tomb of Rassilon, and I'm still not a ginger?"

"I know, it's a bit of a shame, really," Nine replied.

"Yeah, I always wanted to be ginger." Ten said.

_We must continue to the main hall, the Doctor's acquaintances and incarnations are growing impatient._ The Metallichron stated, _Follow me._

"Doctor," Rose said, "where's Zero?"

All of a sudden, two hands went in front of Rose's eyes and a deep voice said, "Guess who."

"Zero," Rose smirked as she grabbed the centuries old young man's hands and turned around and was glad she was right.

"'Ello, poppet." Zero said in a very convincing British accent.

"Right, found him," Ten stated. "Shall we go? I mean it'd be rude to come all this way and only meet one of myself."

"That's a fantastic idea." Nine declared with a smile on his face.

"Well, time guys, let get to gettin' while the gettin's still good." Zero said.

"Right then, Allons-y!" Ten declared with excitement. So the time traveling entourage followed the Metallichron to the main hall, where their excitement would continue to rise.


End file.
